Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #80

Originally Posted on 09/08/2003 by Jeff Harris

Before I begin, I have a couple of things to say about SD Gundam.

I don't have much to say about it except that it's not exactly something I'm sure of. Is it supposed to be a comedy series with a lot of action or an action series that's supposed to have humor? Regardless, it's failing on both parts. I'm still trying to "get" the series. Is it supposed to be going for laughs or for action? There are moments that are supposed to draw a laugh and there are moments that are obviously paroding previous Gundam series. By no means am I a Gundam know-it-all, so if anybody wants to tell me which Gundam series are represented by the SD Gundams, drop me a line.

I'm not a critic of the use of cel-shaded animation, but the more I see it on television, the more I grow irritated by it. It's like they're trying to make idiotic viewers think that it's hand-drawn when the average couch potato could tell it's just CGI with a cel shell. With that said, SD Gundam looks like a really bad CGI sequence from a really bad video game. Computer animation isn't easy to translate for television, and only a few people can do it well. SD Gundam is an exception. That's not to say that the animators won't learn how to get the hang of it when the series rolls on, but even if the story gets better, if the animation continues to look this bad, I don't think I'd consider SD Gundam worth watching. It's not as bad as Voltron: The Third Dimension, but it's hardly worth being called a Gundam series.

Man, I hate being negative about a new show on Toonami, but what are you going to do?

Even as we speak, the Toonami network is officially on the air. Probably the pipedream of many Toonami fans stateside, CNX (the first Turner network to be a European exclusive in the UK) has officially become Toonami today. Pity that they dropped all the adult-oriented action fare to get the network off the ground. I hope that's just temporary insanity on the broadcaster's part. Our European counterparts would LOVE to see shows like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and others on a true action-animation network. Still, it is nice that somebody had the hindsight to turn the Toonami brand into a network.

Rhino loves old-school! With successful releases of Transformers, Battle of the Planets, and G.I. Joe on video and DVD, Rhinomation is anxious to get more old-school animation franchises on DVD. From Toonami vets Thundercats and Voltron to the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Transformers: Headmasters (which has never been seen in this country to my knowledge), Rhino is giving would-be consumers the chance to pick out potential old-school franchises to be released at their official site with a small survey. Plus, if there is any old-school franchise that they might have overlooked (comedies like Teen Wolf and Galaxy High and two popular action franchises Galaxy Rangers and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors), you can let them know. Long live old-school!

I have a couple of new articles uploaded tonight. Both of them are aimed towards stuff I'm kind of frustrated with. One is my disgust with the direction that Epic Comics is going towards (they're not interested in creator-owned titles anymore) and the other is my frustration of the direction that Cartoon Network is headed (they're slowly getting rid of the classic animation shows and focusing way too much on certain brands and downplaying others). You can check 'em out, if you want to. In the meantime, I got to get back to work. It's September, and I have an itchy trigger finger.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
September 8, 2003